CHAPTER 174: DELIA LAUGHS HER ASS OFF

•••

-Mage-Knight Training Classroom-

Caius walked in and took his usual seat beside Delia.

"Break missed as usual," she said.

"Well, I’m sure you picked up my slack very nicely," Caius said with a smile.

"I certainly tried my best," Delia said, "I didn’t give Kaya or Eloise kisses for you though."

"Aw, shucks," Caius said with a little smile.

Delia nodded.

"True that," she said, "And you know if I had, I’d have done so much of a better job at it than you."

"Well, you did learn from the best," Caius said casually, "Me."

Most of this was a very common conversation for them to have after every break when they met up in class the next period so the tone used made it sound almost practiced and routine.

The last part that Caius said though was new and caused the reddening face reaction that was becoming very common for Delia in the weeks since their duel in this very classroom.

She kept herself in check this time though. There were no sparks of lightning and she didn’t strike out at him. Instead, she seemed to remember something funny and chuckled as she said,

"You missed something fun, by the way."

"Oh, what?" Caius asked, intrigued.

"That girl, Aylin Khione? She really went off at the Cafeteria," Delia said.

’Uh oh,’ Caius thought almost immediately able to guess what would have possibly caused a reaction strong enough to cause Delia to look so joyful like a fucking sadist.

The first guess would have been that it was an altercation involving Kaya but Delia had gotten so close to Kaya and Eloise in the past few weeks that she likely wouldn’t look at something like that fondly. Plus, Caius was sure the brokered peace would hold for a while longer at least.

His mind snapped quickly to a certain Earth Mage who had told him what he planned to do right after Alchemy class.

"What happened?" Caius asked.

"Oh, this is gold," Delia said looking like she was going to start talking only to get cut off because she couldn’t keep her laughter contained.

When she got herself under control, she continued,

"Well, you know that boy, Doran, I think, is his name. Sits beside you at Alchemy... Hey, two weeks ago, you two had that strange talk where you were intensely looking at each other. I swear, I thought you were going to kiss him too..."

Caius rolled his eyes and waved for Delia to continue.

She let out a *humph* sound at not sparking a more violent reaction from him for her insinuation and then continued,

"Well, that Doran boy walked up to Aylin Khione and, get this, he told her he was in love with her!"

Delia burst into laughter then. No longer just barely controlled chuckles but full-on hysteria.

"Can you believe it?" She said with a drop of tear in the corner of one eye,

"He said he loved her. Said he’d loved her since the day he saw her. Like, who fucking does that?!"

Delia’s laugh soon became a cackle that drew attention to her and Caius but neither of them really cared. Plus, none of the attention stayed on them for long. Delia’s wicked aura made sure of that.

"Not the approach I’d use, but valid," Caius said with a shrug.

He felt pity for Doran because, if Delia was looking so happy, it had to have been more than a vocal exchange.

"But they’d never had a conversation though," Delia said in between her cackles.

"How would you know that?" Caius asked with a raised brow.

"Aylin said it," Delia said, "Said that was the first time he even said as much as a word to her and he decides to say that? And then she smacked him."

’And there it is,’ Caius said and winced slightly now that they had arrived at the physical part of the exchange that he had been expecting.

"It was horrible," Delia said, laughing, "For the Doran boy, not me, of course. I was laughing my ass off."

"I can tell," Caius said.

Delia continued,

"When Aylin started tossing Ice rods at him and kept saying, ’Take this!’ ’Take that!’ ’Eat this!’ Eat That!’ I *really* lost it. HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"And was everyone cackling like you or did someone have the tact to at least pity the poor boy," Caius said.

"Oh don’t give me that, Caius," Delia said, "If you were there, you’d have laughed too."

"I wouldn’t," Caius said.

He felt that he would have actually appreciated that Doran was doing something and enduring embarrassment to avoid a painful and devastating future that he didn’t even really know about.

Delia scoffed.

"Liar," she said, "You would have laughed. I mean, even Kaya chuckled and she hates Aylin."

Caius felt attention on him then. One he had gotten very capable of picking out. It was cold. But not the alluring but wicked kind like Aylin’s. This was cold but lacking any real ingenuity and all about riding the wave of his name to claim what he deserved. Okay, maybe the gaze didn’t give all that away but the one who owned the gaze had it all over his face though.

Caius turned and was soon locking eyes with Baler Khione.

Baler had a smile on his face and Caius could tell that he knew exactly what he and Delia were talking about. And why wouldn’t he? It had been such a big thing to happen that everyone in class, except Caius of course, had seen it happen.

Also, Delia’s voice wasn’t at all low.

Still keeping his smile, Baler let out a sigh.

"A shame what happened to Doran, don’t you think, Aurelius?"

Aurelius had been absentmindedly forming seals and making Arcane symbols appear and looked surprised to get pulled into a conversation.

"Huh?" He let out.

"Doran," Baler repeated, "That was a shame about him and my sister, wasn’t it?"

Aurelius shrugged.

"I guess," he said, "I mean she was pretty harsh on him."

"Well, of course she was. She’s Aylin. There’s no one crueler," Baler said, "And how good would it have been if someone relayed that nifty bit of information to Doran before he went and made a fool of himself."

Even though Baler seemed to be talking to Aurelius, his eyes were still on Caius. Because all of this, was meant for him.

Caius frowned at that.

Aurelius’s brows furrowed. Likely confused at not being the target of a conversation he had gotten pulled into. He opened his mouth to say something but Baler was already talking again.

"How long could that confession have been marinating in his mind. One week? Two weeks? A month?"

"We haven’t been at Lochxen a Month, Baler," Aurelius pointed out.

Baler blinked at having gotten that wrong because he got carried away but he rallied himself quickly enough.

"’Since the day I first saw you’ is what Doran said to my sister. All that time and he didn’t think to tell us about it.

Us, his best friends."

Aurelius shrugged.

"They were his private thoughts. He’s welcome to keep them to himself. I certainly don’t tell you all that I’m thinking about. And neither, am sure, do you."

Baler soldiered on.

"But this is such a big thing," he said and then made his voice very grand as he continued,

"A love confession... that’s huge. It’s the kind of thing you’d at least clue the brother of the one you ’love’, in on."

Caius rolled his eyes.

"Get to the point," he said, "I’m sure you have one."

Aurelius looked at Caius then, looking confused about what Caius could be referring to.

Baler smirked.

"Aurelius, surely you’ve noticed that Doran has been pulling away from us."

"Not really. We walk together and chat the same," Aurelius said.

"Oh, but he has," Baler insisted, "He’s been pulling away. Gotten himself a bit of a spine..."

"Good for him. I always thought it was silly for him to be so meek with that brain of his," Aurelius said.

Baler frowned. If anyone had been affected the most by Doran’s sudden confidence, it was he after all.

He got his smile back quickly enough and continued though.

"Fair enough," he said through gritted teeth before his voice gained its usual tenor and luster as he said,

"Still, while he hasn’t been confiding in us, he has been confiding in someone else.

That ’someone’ led him astray and got him to make a fool of himself in front of my sister."

The gasps that followed were so silly, that Caius almost laughed.

Baler still had his eyes on him as he then made his accusation,

"Caius Von Helsing. What do you have to say for yourself?"